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The UK Bird Atlas

Little Owl (Athene noctua)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks March to April · Owls · BOU category C1E*F

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Little Owl (Athene noctua)
Frank Vassen from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Little Owl: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Little Owl has been recorded in 1,147 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (39%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in March to April.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
6% to 100%
Moderate
1% to 6%
Low
under 1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 73%<1%Very high
February 74%<1%Very high
March 100%1%Very high
April 93%1%Very high
May 64%<1%Very high
June 77%<1%Very high
July 88%1%Very high
August 92%1%Very high
September 72%<1%Very high
October 69%<1%Very high
November 50%<1%Very high
December 52%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in March

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NY00Cumberland, England100%Very high
NY65Northumberland, England100%Very high
NY86Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ02County Durham, England100%Very high
NZ12County Durham, England100%Very high
NZ23County Durham, England100%Very high
SD43Lancashire, England100%Very high
SD44Lancashire, England100%Very high
SD45Lancashire, England100%Very high
SD50Wigan, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.